Your new-grad RN resume must go beyond credentials by clearly showing clinical readiness, patient-first values, and a commitment to learning and growing.
To stand out even among experienced candidates, use a clean, modern resume template, strategically generate a cover letter that expands on your strengths, and write a resume that matches real-world job scenarios.
What we’ll cover:
- ↪ Three New Grad RN resume examples that actually landed jobs
- ↪ The best formatting strategy to get noticed instantly
- ↪ Proven hacks to ensure you don’t miss out on the interview list
Why this resume works
- A versatile set of skills is just as important as a good career background in your new grad RN resume. Hospitals don’t need just another nurse on the team; they need a superhero in scrubs—without the cape.
- So don’t just stop at skills like IV Management or Clinical Documentation. Include things like Preventive Care and Patient Communication to show employers you’re not just good at changing dressings but also changing lives, one encouraging word at a time.
Related resume examples
How to Write a New Grad RN Resume
Ideally, you want to show that your nursing degree isn’t just for show and you’ve actually lent a hand in real healthcare workspaces. We know, you might think “How is that possible if I just graduated?”
Summary
Take advantage of college projects and clinical internships to land your first RN job.
Don’t worry, we’re the veterans of this. We’ll cover how you can prove clinic-level experience right out of college. Now, this doesn’t mean you undermine other sections while writing your resume. Here’s a list of what you really need to focus on:
- Contact Information
- Career Objective
- Education
- College Projects
Create your lifeline to recruiters: The contact information section
If this is your first time building a resume, keep one rule in mind: never be informal while writing your personal details. We’re talking nicknames that your friends may call you by or spare email addresses like “[email protected].”
Be professional and include basic information, such as:
- Full Name
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Location (city, state)
- LinkedIn (optional)
If you’re applying to a company outside your region, change the location to include your city and country.
Convey your nursing goal with a strong career objective
Craft a well-worded, yet concise career objective to set the tone for your resume. You want to be as specific as possible here. From the clinic/health center’s mission to your skills, add everything.
To give you some inspiration, we’ve listed a good career objective example below:
Example
Recent nursing (BSN) graduate seeking an RN position at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital to provide compassionate patient care. Experienced in patient assessment, phlebotomy, and care planning through clinical projects and volunteer work, ready to support your commitment to safe surgical procedures.
It also helps if you can include things like your license status, clinical skills/tools, and career goal.
Let your transferable skills shine
Your job skills section should include all kinds of stuff, from blood sample collection to patient documentation and note checking. Recruiters want to see that you’re equipped to do it all, whether you’re a new grad RN or not!
Keep each skill specific to your profession. Avoid generic terms like “communication” and instead go for something like “patient education” or “active listening” to convey your efficiency within your job role.
Being extra precise helps you avoid sounding bland in comparison with other candidates! After all, you want to stand out, and showing off your knowledge of vitals and essential life support will do that.
9 best new grad RN skills
- Patient Documentation
- Patient Education
- Blood Drawing
- Vitals
- IV Management
- Clinical Records
- Preventative Care
- Sample Processing
- Emergency Response
Position your relevant work experience and include metrics
You’ve got some great job skills—but how can you show your ability to apply them in a medical setting? This part can sometimes be tricky for new graduates, but you probably have more relevant experiences than you think.
Did you get the opportunity to shadow a doctor or LPN? Did you complete a related internship? You can also refer to unrelated jobs.
Unrelated jobs, such as that after-school stocking job you worked last semester, still build up skills that transfer well to the RN role. Think customer/patient service, stocking shelves vs. managing medical supply inventory, etc.
Just make sure you back your accomplishments with quantifiable data! Here are some examples of bullet points with good metrics for your impact:
- Visited patients, rotating wings weekly to spend at least 15 minutes with each patient, elevating personal rating to 4.8/5 stars
- Assisted patients with mobility, helping them follow physical therapy protocols under the supervision of three CNAs, improving recover results by 14%
- Answered patient call lights within 15 seconds and tended to patients’ needs or located an RN or doctor, depending on the intensity of the situation, achieving a 3 minute decrease in wait times
- Turned and positioned immobile patients safely with 0 incidents, maintaining proper body alignment and preventing 100% of bed sores
Lay down your nursing foundations with credentials
As a fresh grad, your education section holds significant importance. Employers want to know what you’ve studied and specialized in, so don’t hold back from adding relevant coursework that you mastered.
Mentioning certificates and licenses will further solidify your credibility, even if you’re only starting out. These include, but aren’t limited to:
- Registered Nurse (RN)
- Basic Life Support (BLS)
- Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS)
Demonstrate your compassion for patients using projects
Even without actual job experience, you can prove your passion for healthcare using college or high school projects. Rewind the clock a few years back and think about any personal/group nursing projects you may have participated in.
Here are a few ideas to help you:
- Patient Education Initiative for Diabetes Care (Senior Clinical Project): Write how you designed and delivered a patient education module on diabetes management for a community health clinic, resulting in increased patient awareness and improved adherence to self-care routines.
- Capstone Project: Include any research on fall-prevention protocols, where you collaborated with staff to implement new safety measures, and presented findings to faculty and peers.
- Simulation Lab Project (Emergency Response Protocols): Mention your participation in high-fidelity simulations focusing on cardiac arrest scenarios and teamwork under pressure.
Top 5 tips for your new grad RN resume
- Don’t go overboard
- Sometimes, new grads get the urge to spruce up their resumes with fancy fonts and bright colors. Keep that to a minimum. You want to convey professionalism and prioritize legibility!
- Think about the skills, not the source
- We can’t stress enough that applicable RN-related skills can come from anywhere. You don’t have to have job experience in the medical field to launch your career! Think of transferable skills, like a cheerful bedside manner, that you gained from an internship, outreach initiative, or college project that relate to patient care.
- Pick a template that works
- We have three new grad RN resume templates for you to try, and the one you pick should depend directly on the most impressive section you’re presenting. Got lucky with some relevant mentorship experience? Experience section to center stage! Are your skills and certifications jaw-dropping? Give them their own column.
- About those certifications . . .
- Don’t even think about leaving them out! If you have Basic Life Support (BLS), Certified Wound Treatment Associate (WTA-C), or Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) credentials, spotlight those. Certifications demonstrate your capabilities even if you haven’t had relevant work experience yet.
- Consider a cover letter
- A lot of people use a cover letter generator to reflect on experience points that don’t fit on their resumes. How does that time you assisted with a critical situation while volunteering at a nursing home make you a better fit for the company today?
Key takeaways
- Showcase your potential from projects and internships
- Be bold with your clinical skills
- Numbers from relevant achievements show you’re ready for a real job
- Make it easy to scan and find important info
- Focus on the specific role you’re interested in
New Grad RN Resume FAQs
The skills, work, and experience sections take the center stage in your new grad RN resume. From adding your nursing degree, license, and internship/project, to your best clinical skills, include everything you’ve learned about nursing so far.
Recruiters only have a few seconds to spare for each resume. So, keep to a one-page resume. And don’t worry about filling the page to the brim. Focus on leveraging your most powerful points instead of pulling in fluff.
To stand out as a fresher RN, tailor your entire resume to the job description. Learn the hospital/clinic’s culture and speak their language. Also, naturally include important keywords from the job listing to easily pass the ATS check.
You can include an especially impressive GPA, Dean’s List achievement, and any other academic awards you’ve obtained. Including these thoughtful details alongside your Bachelor’s in Nursing shows ambition!
